This blog is a series of reflections on China pertaining to the making and usage of its architecture and changing urban environments.

OVER the past 6 years I have spent a considerable amount of time living and working in China. Currently I am undertaking an extensive stay at North China University of Technology in Beijing as a visiting professor in the department of Architecture working primarily in the design studio and collaborating on diverse research projects with local faculty whom I know consider close friends.

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Irma E. Ramirez is a Professor of Architecture at California State Polytechnic University Pomona. She holds a Bachelor of arts in architecture from the University of California Berkeley, a Master of Architecture and a Master of Urban Planning from the University of California Los Angeles. Her experience lies in the areas of housing and urban design with a special focus on Mexico and China.

Simatai Great Wall

Every year I come to China in search of the new portion of undiscovered terrain that tourists have not flocked and thereby leading the crowds of merchants and tourist industry to quick accessorizing of the “old” and “inaccessible” virgin sites.Five years ago, unknown to me, I was led through the rows of merchants as I arrived to Badaling, the wall section closest to Beijing and the most restored and developed.As impressive as the wall still was at that first moment of our encounter, I pushed through stands of vendors and hordes of tourist groups all following fast-paced colored flags carried by a mechanical waive and accompanied by megaphones emitting undistinguishable versions of English and German.

Experiencing the wall was plagued by visions of amusement park approach to a national monument that stands as the greatest Chinese mechanism of defense;its beauty greatly relying on the idea of the “unaccessible,” the “unpenetrable,” and the “unreachable.”Yet, there I was navigating through what is every year more plagued by luxury developments and vendors periodically positioned along the wall with the most expensive bottle of water in China .The experience was far from a real opportunity to meditate at the peak of such a monumental and inspiring human creation.

Today, I arrived for the second time in the last year at Simatai, an area much farther from Beijing and well known as one of the steepest and most hazardous wall portions, and one that has managed in its inaccessible site-ing to keep away from repair.With the unfortunate miscalculated restoration efforts that in China have led to the transformation of historic relics into careless stucco patches of commercial intent, Simatai is still a jewel on the mountains holding on to its treacherous quality, but quickly seeing dramatic changes as human need encroaches upon its unreachable heights.

Today, after one of the most extreme climbs in 90 degree humidity and hauling the weight of my water bottles, my camera equipment, and my food for the day, I thought I had earned that moment of accomplishment as only a few visitors who come to Simatai do.Just upon reaching the top however, I was baffled in disbelief as I witnessed a western bathroom hidden in a rocky formation abutted to the wall near the top; my arrival was complimented by a local farmer selling ice-cold water just as I reached for my suddenly not so precious bottle of hot water.Turning my head however to see the impetuous mountains and the massive wall narrowing into the width of a string and beyond my sight, quickly made me forget.

Although not yet as devastating an intrusion as the Starbucks embedded into the Forbidden City , Simatai has seen some fast development in the last year that once again promises to destroy the meaning of the relic it seeks to support.Only one year apart, my visits warned me that the next time I will not be so alone here with those likeminded tourists who seek like me to see a bit of the uncomfortable terrain in which the wall is beautifully sited.The story of China has changed, and the wall is no longer in its present state a defensible space of political and territorial meaning, and in its useless presence it falls prey to the only use it can now serve, commerce, the driving force of China.

In a somewhat mutilated form, I now rethink the story Jin told our class a few days ago…

About the Chinese man who owned an ancient violin.When another man realizes its value, he offers to buy the violin from the man.The owner accepts the offer, but when he goes home to get the violin he realizes how old it looks and fears that other man will back out of the sale.So just before returning the next day, he paints the violin white to make sure it looks like new…

Undoubtedly the great wall is fearing “restoration” for the purposes of [de]valuation.What a concept of contradiction the great dilemma of preservation can be…